1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device such as mobile phones with a camera and digital cameras, and relates to an electronic device, a photographing control method, a photographing control program, and a processor, which avoid attempts to disable preventive functions to block inappropriate photographing such as spy shots by emitting a shutter sound or the like at the time of photographing.
As digital cameras become commonplace, various electronic devices such as a mobile phone with a camera and an information-processing device with a camera function are becoming popular. Since a mobile phone with a camera has a phone function and a camera function, its usability of these two functions in a single body as well as its multiplier capabilities such as storing, editing, and transmitting/receiving of shot images, phone conversation, photographing and processing of the shot images enhance its convenience. In such a mobile phone with a camera, in view of privacy protection, for example, a shutter sound is emitted as a notifying sound at the time of still image capturing (beginning of photographing) in order to inform people around of the photographing action. Such a function of preventing spy shots by a notifying sound serves as an impetus for malicious people to refrain from committing stealthy acts, by informing people around of the photographing action.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile phone with a camera has a basic structure shown in FIG. 1, for example. FIG. 1 shows an overview of a camera function section in a mobile phone with a camera. In this mobile phone 2, an image formed through a lens 4 is detected at a camera sensor 6. The image as an analog signal is converted into a digital signal via an analog-digital converter (ADC: Analog Digital Converter) 8, and then added to a processor 10. This image is displayed on an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 14, an image display unit through this processor 10 via a bus 12. In this kind of mobile phones, capturing of the image on the finder is prepared by pressing halfway down a shutter button disposed on the main unit of the mobile phone, and a photographing operation completes by pressing the shutter button all the way down. A shot image is saved in a RAM (Random Access Memory) 16 in synchronization with the shutter operation. At this time, when the shutter button is pressed all the way down, a shutter sound information read from a FLASH (flash memory) 18 is converted into a shutter sound signal by the processor 10 and outputted, and then added to an amplifier (SPK-AMP: Speaker-Amplifier) 20. The shutter sound signal amplified by the amplifier 20 is emitted from a speaker 22 as a shutter sound. This shutter sound becomes a notice of the shutter operation to the person who takes pictures or to the subject of photographing.
In this mobile phone 2, the photographing operation is described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows the photographing operation. In the camera operation mode and in the finder mode (step S1), an image representing the subject formed through the lens 4 is displayed on the LCD 14. At this time, it is judged whether or not the camera operation mode is finished (step S2), and for example, by switching to the phone call mode, the camera operation mode is finished. If the camera operation mode is maintained, it is judged whether or not the operation switches to the capture mode (step S3). With this situation, pressing the shutter button halfway down switches to the capture mode (step S4) and it is judged whether or not the photographing is performed (step S5). That is, by moving the shutter button from the state of halfway down to the state of all the way down, the photographing operation is completed and the image displayed on the LCD 14 is captured as a still image. Then a shutter sound indicating the shutter operation is emitted (step S6), and the image data captured by the photographing is saved in the RAM 16 (step S7), then the operation returns to the finder mode (step S1).
In such a mobile phone 2, the shutter sound emitted at the time of still image capturing is sounded out without condition, and even if the people around notice the photographing action, it is only after the picture was taken, and the picture has been saved irrespective of the intentions of photographing action. On top of that, the shutter sound is configured to emit from the speaker 22 built in the main unit of the mobile phone so that there is a possibility that malicious users may block the output of shutter sound through easy modifications of the mobile phone 2 such as cutting a wiring 24 on the input side of the speaker 22.
In this way, there is a risk that malicious users may disable the function to prevent spy shots easily by abusing the portability and convenience of conventional electronic devices having a camera function, and take an antisocial behavior such as stealthy photographing actions. In addition, there is a problem as well that the images are easily erasable so that no evidence of the spy shots is left.
In regard to such functions to prevent spy shots, for example, a camera with a mute device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H 07(1995)-175105 enables photographing without considering the subject or the people around by silencing operational sound of the camera, so that it has a risk of being ill-used for spy shots.
Furthermore, in a device for preventing stealthy photographing disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H10(1998)-31265, in order to prevent a photographing function by a remote control from being abused, a warning sound is outputted at the time of photographing regardless of the intentions of a person who takes a picture. But even with this device for preventing stealthy photographing, if a connecting wire between a warning sound generating part and a speaker is cut, generation of warning sound may be blocked, so that there is a risk that the function to prevent stealthy photographing may be disabled.
Moreover, in a portable terminal disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-290818, taking a picture is inhibited when the main unit is slanted at an unnatural angle. Stealthy photos are not always taken at an unnatural angle so that judging stealthy photographing actions by the photographing angle has a risk of hindering a normal photographing.